1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, a print control method, and a storage medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
A print system in which a print instruction is transmitted from a client to a server and the server received the print instruction converts the content to be printed into print data has been proposed. In recent years, a cloud computing has been attracting attention as a system for providing service from a server to a client.
A main feature of the cloud computing is that data conversion and data processing are executed in a distributed manner using many computing resources so as to process requests from many clients in a simultaneous manner. At present, too many vendors provide various types of services by implementing Web services on a cloud computing environment for realizing the cloud computing in a disorderly way.
Among vendors who provide services on a cloud computing environment, Google (registered trademark) is a notable vendor. Google (registered trademark) not only establishes many large-scale data centers so as to propose services to be provided in cooperation with devices but also develops a data communication scheme between devices and services. Google (registered trademark) has developed a data communication scheme for providing services in cooperation with image forming devices and has disclosed an interface for providing data communication between the cloud computing environment prepared by Google (registered trademark) and image forming devices. The implementation of the interface on image forming devices enables an image forming device to be specified for printout from a client when the image forming devices and a server are connected to each other via Internet.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-278144 discloses a communication device that extracts credential information about a user who is the transmission source of a message from the message for requesting a call for a standard interface and verifies the justification of the user based on credential information to thereby execute a process in response to the standard interface.
It is considered that there will be increasing opportunities for device vendors to provide services in association with image forming devices in accordance with the interface disclosed by cloud computing vendors. Thus, a device vendor may wish to implement a unique function on a service to be provided in order to differentiate itself from other vendors.
Due to the characteristics of the cloud computing environment, the feature of services to be provided in the cloud computing environment lies in the fact that the services may include not only a function to be completed within a single image forming device but also a function required for working in cooperation with a plurality of image forming devices. However, when another service having a function unique to a device vendor is provided on the cloud computing environment in addition to an existing service implemented in accordance with the interface disclosed by a cloud computing vendor, the following circumstances may occur.
When a newly-added service having a function unique to a device vendor provides a unique function that is not envisaged by a cloud computing vendor, the specification for data communication in the cloud computing environment is not present for that particular function. Thus, in order to ensure that the function can be used from the existing cloud computing environment, the existing specification for data communication in the cloud computing environment needs to be changed.
For example, assume the case where a new function is added to an information processing apparatus that is arranged on a cloud computing environment, acquires print data from a print data generation device, and instructs an image forming device to print the acquired print data via a network. FIG. 21 is a diagram illustrating circumstances when a new function service is added to an information processing apparatus. A user provides a print instruction to a print data generation device. The print data generation device transmits print data corresponding to the print instruction to a VP (virtual printer) provided in the information processing apparatus and the VP instructs an RP (actual printer) corresponding to the VP to print out print data. With this arrangement, a user can receive the provision of a print service in response to a print instruction via the print data generation device and the information processing apparatus. Here, as shown in FIG. 21, it is assumed that a new function service is added to the information processing apparatus. The function service is a specified print service not provided by the print data generation device. Thus, in order for a user to be able to use the function service added to the information processing apparatus via the existing print data generation device, the existing specification for data communication between the print data generation device and the information processing apparatus must be changed.
Also, with the addition of the function service to the information processing apparatus, a communication path (a communication path shown by the dotted lines in FIG. 21) to be used when a print instruction is given from the added function service to each individual image forming device increases, resulting in an increase in communication load on each individual image forming device. When a function for realizing a specified print service not provided by the print data generation device is added to the information processing apparatus in addition to the case where a function required for working in cooperation with a plurality of image forming devices is added thereto, the aforementioned circumstances may occur.